Abstract: Objective: To assess the levels of state-trait anxiety among patients in the preoperative holding area and explore its influencing factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed and a convenience sampling was adopted to recruit patients from the preoperative holding area of a tertiary hospital in Hubei. Patients were asked to complete the State-trait Inventory. Results: The state anxiety score was 44.79±10.04, and the trait anxiety score was 36.01±6.72. The cut off value for high or low state anxiety lever was 49 points, and there were 272 (36.61%) preoperative patients in a high level anxiety group. Multivariate stepwise regression analysis showed that sequence of operation, sleep quality, surgery experience (negative or positive), gender, operation type (obstetrics and gynecology), marital status (unmarried, divorced or widowed), and age were the influencing factors of state anxiety, while age, gender, surgery experience (sad), marital status (divorced or widowed), etc were the main influencing factors of trait anxiety. Conclusion: Severe state anxiety may exist among patients in preoperative holding area, and nurse should focus on psychological intervention for them, particularly for patients with consecutive surgery, female, unmarried, divorced or widowed, younger, obstetrics and gynecology and those who had a negative surgery memory.